From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The number of people deemed not Jewish enough to marry in Israel has doubled over 7 years
A Jewish bride poses for photos ahead of her wedding near the Jewish settlement of Migron in the West Bank, Aug. 17, 2011. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The number of people rejected as being not Jewish for the purposes of marriage in Israel appears to have more than doubled in the past seven years, according to data from the country’s rabbinical courts.
In 2010, the number of Jews who registered to marry in Israel and then had their Jewish status revoked, making them unable to marry, was 103, or 3.1 percent of all Israelis who registered to marry that year. In 2017, some 231 of those registering to marry had their Jewish status revoked, or some 6.7 percent of those who registered to marry. In 2016, the number of those registering to marry who had their Jewish status revoked was 248, but it represented 6.1 percent of those registering to marry.
During the same years, the number of people on a list of Israelis whose Jewish status is “pending clarification” rose from 90 in 2010 to 175 in 2017.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Meet the millennial Mexican-American Jewish woman running for office on the southern border
Alma Hernandez, a Mexican-American Jew and daughter of immigrants, is running for the Arizona House of Representatives and founded a progressive Jewish group in Tucson. (Courtesy of Hernandez)
(JTA) — Less than one day after Alma Hernandez began a Jewish fundraiser for migrants on the southern border, she had an SUV full of food, diapers and hygienic products ready to donate.
Hernandez loaded the vehicle with goods bought with donations on Wednesday afternoon. The following day she would drive them all down to a migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico, on behalf of Tucson Jews for Justice, a progressive activist group she co-founded in March.
Hernandez, 25, is not the only Jew trying to help families crossing the border. But for her, the work is personal. Hernandez’s mother is from Nogales, a city adjacent to the border that serves as a gateway into the United States. When she talks about undocumented immigrants, in some cases she’s talking about her own relatives.
“I have family members who are here undocumented or as Dreamers, so any time I see things going on, it affects me and it hurts,” she told JTA, using an acronym that refers to undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors. “As the Jewish community and as Jews, we should be the first ones saying anything.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Hundreds of Jews protest at ICE headquarters in New York City
Protesters at a Jewish rally at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in New York City demonstrate against the government’s border separation policy, June 21, 2018. (Ben Sales)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Hundreds of Jews crowded the steps of the New York City headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to protest the government’s policy of separating families at the southern border.
Jewish texts and liturgy imbued the protest organized by T’ruah, the liberal rabbinic human rights group, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. It was co-sponsored by 30 organizations, including congregations and liberal Jewish activist groups.
Speakers included Rabbi Shai Held, co-founder of the traditional egalitarian Hadar Institute and an essayist who often connects biblical themes to current events, and Brad Lander, a Democratic city councilman from Brooklyn with a large Jewish constituency who has allied with liberal Jewish groups. Both condemned the Trump administration in Jewish moral terms.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Boston’s oldest Jewish cemetery to become immigrant center
(JTA) — The oldest Jewish cemetery in Boston is set to become a community center for the newest immigrants on the city’s east side.
The Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts announced plans to convert Ohabei Shalom’s Gothic Revival burial chapel into the East Boston Immigration Center four years ago, according to The Times of Israel. Partnering with advocacy groups, JCAM is in the midst of a $2.5 million campaign to cover the restoration and retrofitting of the space.
The center plans to host citizenship and naturalization classes, along with English lessons, while offering guidance on operating a small business — reflecting the path previously followed by many of East Boston’s Italian, Irish and Jewish immigrants. A permanent exhibition will highlight East Boston’s Jewish heyday, providing the history of other once-large Jewish communities along the region’s Mystic River.
East Boston remains the city’s immigrant enclave, welcoming most of its recent newcomers from Colombia and El Salvador. According to JCAM officials, the center will assist some of the underserved neighborhood’s most vulnerable residents.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
10 rabbis are visiting separated families on the border
Central American asylum seekers wait as U.S. Border Patrol agents take them into custody near McAllen, Texas, June 12, 2018. (John Moore/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — A group of 10 rabbis has traveled to Texas to examine detention facilities for separated families on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The group, which is aiming to visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Centralized Processing Center on Thursday, includes rabbis from all four major Jewish religious movements and is part of a larger delegation of 40 interdenominational clergy.
The group also includes Catholic, Protestant and Muslim leaders. Among them was the Rev. Al Sharpton, onetime provocative civil rights activist.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Stephen Miller isn’t apologizing for families being separated at the border
Stephen Miller talks to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., August 2, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Who is among the biggest cheerleaders for a policy that some people compared to the actions of Nazis and supporters said was an essential tool in securing America’s borders?
That would be Stephen Miller, a Jewish senior adviser to President Trump. A New York Times article published Saturday called Miller “instrumental” to the policy, which President Donald Trump halted Wednesday after weeks of mounting bipartisan outrage.
“No nation can have the policy that whole classes of people are immune from immigration law or enforcement,” Miller told The Times. “It was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry, period. The message is that no one is exempt from immigration law.”
The “simple decision” led to a policy that drew broad rebuke from across the political and religious spectrum. The policy, which was instituted in May, said anyone who crosses the border illegally will be detained and prosecuted. That means children, who cannot be prosecuted and detained like adults, were forcibly separated from their parents for an undetermined period. More than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents.
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From PressTV
Israeli jet strikes southern Gaza, no injuries reported
An Israeli warplane has carried out an airstrike against the southern part of the Gaza Strip as the Tel Aviv regime continues with its acts of aggression against the besieged Palestinian coastal sliver.
Palestinian eyewitnesses and security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli warplane fired two missiles at a group of young men east of the border town of Rafah, located 30 kilometers south of Gaza City, on Thursday afternoon.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or the extent of damage caused.
An unnamed Israeli army spokesperson later said the fighter jet had attacked infrastructure used for releasing incendiary kites and balloons into occupied territories.
At least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the “Great March of Return” began in the Gaza Strip on March 30. Fourteen children are among the fallen Palestinians.
Around 14,000 Palestinians also sustained injuries, of whom 300 are reportedly in a critical condition.
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From PressTV
Israel may up intensity of airstrikes on Gaza: Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the Tel Aviv regime may increase the “intensity” of its airstrikes on Gaza.
“We are prepared for any scenario and our enemies would do well to understand this,” he said during a military ceremony on Wednesday.
The remarks were made several hours after Israeli warplanes carried out around two dozen airstrikes on Gaza, which according to medical sources wounded several civilians.
They also come at a time that US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Jason Greenblatt and adviser Jared Kushner are set to visit the region.
Israel said that the attacks were carried out in response to rocket and mortar fire launched from within the coastal enclave.
The Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas said in a statement that the rocket fire came in response to earlier Israeli aerial assaults against Gaza, stressing that the resistance movement reserves the legitimate right to retaliate against any act of aggression by the occupying enemy.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
South African Jews report ‘flurry of viciously anti-Semitic’ incidents
(JTA) — Representatives of South Africa’s Jewish community said they are seeing an uptick in anti-Semitic rhetoric in real life and on social media.
The South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies, or SAJBD, said this in a statement Thursday, warning that, “Over the past 24 hours, a flurry of viciously antisemitic and threatening attacks have been made against South African Jews, both on social media and in direct face-to-face encounters.”
Passengers awaiting their suitcases from an El Al flight into South Africa were called “wicked Jews” at the airport by a man who ranted against them from across a luggage belt at O. R. Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg.
A mural with a German flag and a swastika inserted in it was painted this week on a wall in Hamilton Street in Johannesburg.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Dutch state TV sorry for saying Israel threatens to destroy Iran and was built on occupied land
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Netherlands’ main public broadcaster retracted claims it published that Israel threatens Iran with destruction and that land gained by the Jewish state in 1948 is “occupied.”
The NOS broadcaster made the two retractions within the space of two weeks amid protests by Dutch Jews and others who complained that the state-funded organization has an institutional anti-Israel bias. A senior NOS spokesperson denied this.
The correction involving Iran came Tuesday. An NOS article stated that “Iran and Israel are arch-enemies that regularly threaten one another with destruction.” Iranian officials have often spoken about Israel’s destruction, but Israeli leaders have made no similar threats against Iran, NOS acknowledged after protests by the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, pro-Israel group.
“Israel sees Iran, which regularly threatens to destroy Israel, as a grave danger,” the corrected text reads. Israel has threatened repeatedly “to intervene, also with bombing of Iranian targets,” it also says.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
In Europe, the targeting of Roma sets off alarm bells for Jews
Members of the Roma community are pictured at a Roma camp on the outskirts of Rome, June 19, 2018. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — When Italy’s interior minister recommended creating a “registry” of Roma, his remark was merely the latest addition to a long list of anti-Roma statements by senior European leaders.
In March, Janos Lazar, the right-hand man for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said: “Once we let them in, they will take over.”
In 2010, Traian Basescu, the president of Romania at the time, said at a news conference about the nomadic ethnic group also known as Gypsies that “very few of them want to work” and “traditionally many of them live off stealing.”
Yet the remark this week by the interior minister, Matteo Salvini, about a Roma database generated a far greater international outcry, especially from several Jewish groups across Europe. Both the Union of Italian Jewish Communities and the Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned it as reminiscent of the Nazi policies inspired by Italy’s fascist movement.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israeli army demolishes home of Palestinian attacker who killed 2 soldiers
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli army demolished the home of a Palestinian man who rammed his car into a group of soldiers and killed two of them.
The attack by Ala Kabha, 26, took place in March outside a military post in the northern West Bank, near the Mevo Dotan settlement. Sgt. Netanel Kahalani and Capt. Ziv Daos were killed and two others were seriously injured.and seriously injuring two others.
The razed home was an apartment in a building in the northern West Bank village of Bartaa. Only Kabha’s apartment was destroyed.
Kabha said he intended to murder soldiers, according to the Israel Security Agency, after first calling the attack an accident.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Michael Bloomberg to spend $80 million to help Democrats in midterm elections
Michael Bloomberg speaking during the 4th Annual Town & Country Philanthropy Summit at Hearst Tower in New York City, May 9, 2017. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Town & Country)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Michael Bloomberg will spend $80 million in an effort to help elect Democrats in the midterm elections.
The Jewish media mogul and former New York City mayor said his goal is to gain Democratic control of the House of Representatives, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
“I’ve never thought that the public is well-served when one party is entirely out of power, and I think the past year and half has been evidence of that,” Bloomberg told The Times.
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From PressTV
UN coordination essential for refugee returns to Syria: Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a political solution to the hot-button issue of Syrian refugees’ return from Lebanon to their homeland, saying it can only take place in coordination with the United Nations.
“We want to contribute to reaching a political solution in Syria, that will allow refugees to return to Syria,” Merkel told reporters in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday following her meeting with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.
“I confirmed with officials that returns can only happen in agreement and talks with UN organizations,” she added.
The small country of Lebanon has the world’s highest number of refugees per capita. Nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees have been living in Lebanon since 2011, making up a quarter of the country’s population.
Lebanon’s head of the General Security agency Major General Abbas Ibrahim said late in May that Lebanese and Syrian officials are working together to facilitate the return of thousands of refugees who want to return to Syria.
“There are contacts with the Syrian authorities about thousands of Syrians who want to return to Syria. The stay of Syrians in Lebanon will not go on for a long time. There is intensive work by the political authority,” the Lebanese official added.
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From PressTV
Trump’s adviser meets Saudi crown prince to discuss Israeli-Palestinian conflict
On the second leg of his regional tour, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman for talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Washington prepares to unveil what it calls the deal of the century.
During the Wednesday meeting in Saudi Arabia, which took place in the presence of US special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenbelt, the two sides exchanged views on Washington-Riyadh bilateral ties as well as the Palestinian issue, according to a statement from the White House.
Kushner kicked off his tour on Tuesday in Amman, where he and Greenblatt sat down for talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II. A day earlier, the king of Jordan had met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the so-called peace process.
Palestine excluded
The US delegation is also scheduled to visit Israel, Egypt and Qatar, but no stop has been planned in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based.
The US-Palestine ties deteriorated last December, when Washington recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and announced plans to transfer the embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Haredi Orthodox responsible for reversing Jewish population decline in Britain, study says
(JTA) — High birthrates among the haredi Orthodox are responsible for a recent growth in the number of British Jews following decades of decline, a new study shows.
The trend was featured in a report published Thursday by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, or JPR, and the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
According to “Vital statistics of the UK Jewish population: Births and deaths,” births in the British Jewish community have exceeded deaths in every year since 2006. Other things being equal, the report’s author wrote, this implies “Jewish demographic growth in the United Kingdom.”
As haredi Jews elevated the average overall for the Jewish community since 1979 — their birthrate is estimated at seven children per woman — the number of deaths within that group decreased noticeably in the same period in connection with improvement in health services and life expectancy.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
In Sweden, Jews and Muslims united around Israeli flags at a gay pride parade
Ilana Edner, marching behind the Israeli flag, with participants of the Jewish contingent of the gay pride parade in Malmo, Sweden, June 10, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
MALMO, Sweden (JTA) — This city is not the best place to fly rainbow flags emblazoned with a Star of David.
Its crime rate — among the highest in Scandinavia — and a large Muslim community make Malmo a flashpoint rife with interethnic and religious tensions. It is also notorious for its high rate of anti-Semitism, including harassment of Jewish leaders, attacks on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, and anti-Semitic chants at protests.
That’s why Barbara Posner, one of Malmo’s approximately 1,000 Jews, was slightly apprehensive when she joined the Jewish contingent at the city’s gay pride parade earlier this month. It didn’t help that the event fell on one of the hottest days of the year and at the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month when Muslims fast daily between sunrise and sunset.
“I had some concerns, yes, but not enough to keep me away,” Posner, 66, said about the June 10 event. “I think it’s important Malmo’s Jews take an active part in all of the city’s major events, our backs straight and proud of our identity,”
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From PressTV
Amnesty accuses Saudi-backed forces of ‘possible war crimes’ in Yemen
Amnesty International says Saudi Arabian-backed militants could be committing war crimes in Yemen by interfering with the flow of humanitarian supplies into the impoverished country.
The UK-based human rights body said in a statement on its website that the militants stop the aid-laden ships to inspect their cargoes even though it is the United Nations which is mandated to do so.
They divert the ships to the Yemeni ports which are controlled by a Saudi-led coalition of invaders whom they work for, or delay them for further inspection sometimes for a month or more, the organization added.
“The times that these inspections are taking are effectively obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid and essential goods. And that is why, in our analysis, we have found that this could amount to collective punishment,” the statement quoted Lynn Maalouf, the Middle East research director at the Amnesty, as saying.
The coalition has been waging a war on the Arab world’s already most impoverished country to restore its former Saudi-allied officials. Yemen’s Health Ministry says more than 600,000 people have either been killed or injured during the three-year-old invasion.
The combination of the war and blockade has brought the country close to the edge of famine.
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From PressTV
Malaysia to end involvement in Yemen war
Malaysia’s Defense Minister Mohamad Sabu says the country is considering ending its involvement in Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military aggression against the people of Yemen.
“Why would we want to be involved in attacking Yemen, another Islamic nation?” Sabu told The Malaysian Insight on Wednesday. “We don’t want to be involved in such conflicts.”
Popularly known as Mat Sabu, the new defense minister said the involvement had “indirectly” mired Malaysia in the Middle East and hurt its neutral policy in the region.
He insisted that Malaysia has never side with the political ideology of any of the world’s superpowers either.
Saudi media have named Malaysia as one of the 34 countries that have been working with the kingdom in “fighting terrorism.”
In April, Malaysian army forces took part in a joint military exercise called “(Persian) Gulf Shield 1” in Damman, Saudi Arabia.
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